Cross that one off the list. In gold bracket SMAC tournament action Tuesday night, Luis Olivares’ team topped the Mustangs 3-2 in overtime. Sturgis is the No. 2 seed from the East and Portage Central is the No. 3 seed in the West.

Enrique Lopez scored the “golden goal” with 9:07 left in overtime to propel Sturgis (10-4-2) to the victory.

“Portage Central is a great team and it was a great game for us, we needed that game,” Olivares said. “We were able to keep cool heads and I told the guys if they wee able to do that, we would see what happens. I told them if we played until the whistle, anything can happen.”

Portage Central (10-3-3) got on the board early in the contest.

With 7:19 left in the first half, Gerardo Ortega scored on a Portage Central miscue to even the game at 1-1, where the score remained into halftime.

Jonathan Gonzalez tallied a goal in the second half for Sturgis.

Then, heading into overtime, Olivares said he was confident in his team.

“Portage Central is a great team and we knew that, they have very good skilled players,” Olivares said. “I told our guys we needed to contain them and we were able to do that.”

Olivares called the game a “battle of midfielders” and Sturgis has two of the best in Lopez and Carlos Maldonado.

“Our guys worked hard tonight on concentration and we passed the test today,” Olivares said. “It was a great win for us.”

Sturgis will travel to take on Portage Northern Thursday. The Huskies topped Gull Lake 5-0 on Tuesday.